Chapter 427: Dire Tidings from the East

The twenty-eighth day of the eighth month, the sixth year of the Chongzhen reign — the Autumn Equinox.

An unbroken drizzly rain hung over Hehuang. Liu Chengzong sat beneath the eaves, cradling Battalion Commander Mei in his arms, a short-sleeved wool half-jacket draped over his shoulders. Little Zuanfeng lay sprawled at his feet. He watched the rainwater gather in the courtyard and flow along the stone channel out of the mansion.

Today was supposed to be the combined-camp grand drill; he was to review the troops outside the city. But because of this rain, the camp drill was canceled and replaced with an examination on military law and regulations. Now it was utterly quiet outside the city, only the occasional muffled report of a firearm drifting over from the direction of the arsenal.

Rainy days were for experiments at the arsenal — Shi Chengwo and He Xin were testing rain covers for the heavy muskets and jingals.

From the street came the clatter of horseshoes striking the ground. Several fast horses were galloping through the rain.

Liu Chengzong cocked an ear and listened. Coming from the east.

Before long, the hoofbeats halted abruptly outside the yamen. Tianbao reported from beyond the festooned gate: "Grand Marshal, it is Wu Panlong, Battalion Commander of the Eastern Pass, bearing a letter from General Li of the Eastern Pass. He requests entry."

Liu Chengzong nodded, raised his eyes to the heavy curtain of rain, and strode toward the front hall.

Not long after, Wu Panlong, having changed into a raincoat, still had rain stains on his cloth-faced iron armor as he entered the front hall and saluted. "Your subordinate Wu Panlong pays his respects to the Grand Marshal."

"Sit. Have a bowl of hot tea."

Seated in the host's chair, Liu Chengzong gestured for him to dispense with formalities and invited him to take a seat to the side. "The roads are bad in the rain. What did Li Wanqing send you here for?"

Wu Panlong was a certified student from Zhenyuan County. He had first worked in Xining as a keeper of the horse section. Liu Chengzong had always appreciated men of learning in the army. During the Hehuang campaign, Wu had earned battle merit as a squad leader under Yang Yao's command. When the time came to confer official posts, he was assigned to the Eastern Pass as a battalion commander.

After the grand conferral of offices, the Marshal's Mansion was designed with several distinct army systems.

By rank, from lowest to highest, they were: the Five Garrisons of Hehuang, the Caiguan Camp, the Field Camp, and also the Huben Camp and the Garrison-Farm Camp.

The Five Garrisons were local militia; the Caiguan were the regular army; the Field Camp were the elite; the Huben were the officer corps. The Garrison-Farm Camp stood outside this system, akin to a tusi domain.

A full battalion commander of the Five Garrisons held the rank of full sixth grade. Officers of the same grade included the full company commander of the Caiguan Camp and the full squad commander of the Field Camp.

This system of graded official posts was established to select generals and to cultivate a recruitment system. Although it objectively lengthened the promotion process from soldier to officer, it likewise gave soldiers the opportunity for promotion even without battle merit.

For a soldier to become an officer, he had to serve in sequence in the Five Garrisons, the Caiguan, and the Huben, then return to the Five Garrisons to become a squad officer.

Under normal circumstances, officers followed the same path — they had to rotate through the three systems, gradually mastering all the foundational knowledge an officer required.

Wu Panlong took a sip of the steaming tea, cupped the bowl to warm his hands, and smiled. "Thanks to this rain, the Grand Marshal is at the yamen. Otherwise, your subordinate would have had to seek you out in the military camp... Here is General Li's letter."

The letter Li Wanqing had sent from Hehuang mainly reported on the standoff between the two armies.

The autumn harvest on both banks of the Yellow River had now concluded. With the grain safely in the granaries, neither they nor the government troops of the court were as on edge as before.

Li Wanqing did mention, however, that that Lanzhou Assistant Regional Commander, Shi Xiang, seemed disappointed that no fight had broken out.

Liu Chengzong smiled. Next year, this Shi Xiang would have no reason to be disappointed. But as he read on, the smile on his face suddenly froze. Frowning, he looked at Wu Panlong. "The east — has a disaster struck?"

In this era, that question was actually a bit redundant.

It was as if the east hadn't suffered disasters before.

But Wu Panlong dared not be careless. He nodded with great gravity. "Yes. This year, Shaanxi's drought was not as severe, but just as our courier reached Pingliang, they ran into a locust plague. The sky went dark. More than half of the Han princely fief's estate fields were devoured by locusts."

Wu Panlong sighed. He was a native of Zhenyuan in Pingliang Prefecture. He knew all too well what ability his hometown had to withstand drought and locust plagues.

He continued, "On my way back, I sought out Shi Xiang in Lanzhou and asked him to inquire about the situation in the east. I never imagined it would have been better not to ask."

"What happened?"

"This year, the grain harvest in Longdong is a complete loss. Only Lintao and Gongchang had no drought, no locusts, no floods. Pingliang and Fengxiang suffered drought and locusts. To the south, Hanzhong Prefecture had floods. Weibei is finished too, same as Pingliang and Fengxiang."

This made Liu Chengzong's eyes widen. When he had first risen in revolt, places like Yaozhou, Tongzhou, and Qianzhou in Weibei had been lands of immortals. He had considered that drought might strike there, but he had not expected it so soon.

Yet, on reflection, it made sense. Although there were many rivers there and drought's impact was less severe, they still could not withstand a sky-darkening locust plague.

He asked, "What about Yan'an Prefecture?"

Wu Panlong shook his head. "That, your subordinate does not know. One imagines it can't be much better. There is some news from Yan'an Prefecture, but it has little to do with locusts or drought."

"What news?"

"According to official dispatches, in the seventh month of this year, a great battle was fought in Yan'an Prefecture. It is said that the Dashing King, Gao Yingxiang, who rose up years ago, had been lying low in Yan'an all this time. This year he rose again. At Ganquan, he deployed over a hundred cannons and clashed with Assistant Regional Commander Yang Yanchang and Commander Ren Quan'er."

Gao Yingxiang had emerged.

Liu Chengzong's heart seized up. He immediately asked, "How did the battle go?"

He longed to hear of the heroic bearing of Yan'an Prefecture's peerless fierce general, Yang Yanchang. But there was none.

Wu Panlong said, "Victory and defeat on both sides, I suppose. The government troops lost a battalion commander surnamed Lu. But unfortunately, the Dashing King gained no advantage either. Someone called Zhongdouxing died in the battle. Does the Grand Marshal know of—"

He had barely finished speaking when he saw Liu Chengzong's face turn ashen. A dark, heavy breath escaped his nose.

Wu Panlong asked cautiously, "The Grand Marshal knew this Zhongdouxing?"

"More than knew him!"

Liu Chengzong lost all desire for conversation. He rose and walked out of the hall, tilting his head back to gaze through the heavy curtain of rain at the sky.

He wanted to set up a cannon and blast a hole through the heavens.

Zhongdouxing was Gao Yingxiang's younger brother, Gao Ying'en. When they had known each other, he had commanded the most elite unit of deserters under Gao Yingxiang.

The battalion commander surnamed Lu was Lu Bin of Old Temple Village. Chengzong had personally escorted him into the Yan'an Guard. Along with him, many of the wounded soldiers from Liu Chengzong's early command had been sent into the Yan'an Guard — even many young men of the old Liu family of Black Dragon Mountain.

This battle was different from the past fighting in Yan'an Prefecture. They had fought in deadly earnest.

Wu Panlong had no idea what had just happened. He thought Liu Chengzong was simply a good friend of Gao Yingxiang. But in truth, when it came to closeness, the Yan'an Guard and Yan'an Camp were far nearer to the Marshal's Mansion.

The so-called irreconcilable enmity between soldier and bandit did not exist in Yan'an Prefecture.

They had coexisted in harmony for several years. If there was any way to avoid conflict, Liu Chengzong believed both Ren Quan'er and Gao Yingxiang would have tried to avoid it. Yet they had fought.

Without a doubt, peaceful coexistence was no longer enough to keep everyone alive.

Liu Chengzong felt that the heavens were truly ruthless. First the great drought — so severe people could not survive. Those who barely escaped with their lives settled by the water, cultivating the riverbank lands they once looked down upon, laboring to build irrigation works, just barely scraping by.

Then one great locust plague — and that was that. All for nothing.

When Liu Chengzong stepped outside the hall door, Wu Panlong dared not remain seated inside alone and had no choice but to follow him out. He heard Liu Chengzong ask, "Our courier — is he still in Pingliang?"

"He should be. With locusts everywhere, travel is impossible."

"It's best he's in Pingliang. I need to write a letter and have it delivered to Yan'an Prefecture."

Liu Chengzong wanted to write to Ren Quan'er and ask what exactly had happened in that battle in Yan'an Prefecture. He had not expected Wu Panlong to shake his head. "Grand Marshal, I fear it cannot be delivered. In Kelan Prefecture in Shanxi, plague has broken out."

Hearing this news, Liu Chengzong was not particularly surprised.

Or rather, right now it was hard for any news to surprise him — it was just that the bad news was truly fucking endless.

"What plague?"

"This humble officer does not know." Wu Panlong shook his head. "I only know that this year Shanxi's drought is worse than in past years, and on top of that it's caught up in the chaos of war. The official dispatch says that the common people of Kelan Prefecture are crossing the Yellow River into northern Shaanxi, and it ordered the government troops along the route to block the people — that's the only reason it mentioned the epidemic in Shanxi."

Wu Panlong was not particularly on guard against a plague breaking out far away, but Liu Chengzong's expression was exceptionally grim. Whether it was worry in his heart or the chill of early autumn, the fine hairs on his cheeks stood on end.

But he knew very well in his own heart: the last time he had this feeling was back at Yuhe Fort, when his elder brother told him the news that the Guyuan border troops had mutinied and the people had risen up across northern Shaanxi.

At that time he knew — the great uprising of the late Ming had come.

And at this moment he knew — the great late-Ming plague that would sweep the realm, the plague, had come.

The character yi, "epidemic," is glossed in the Shuowen Jiezi as "when all the people are sick"; in the Zilin, compiled in the Jin dynasty, the meaning is even clearer: "a disease that spreads."

Because of this characteristic of violent contagion, the diseases that can be called yi are few — only plague, smallpox, cholera, malaria, measles, typhoid, chickenpox, dysentery, scarlet fever, diphtheria, and a few others like these.

And among these, plague, smallpox, and cholera are the diseases whose impact is most severe.

The danger of smallpox is relatively the lowest of the three. Although smallpox is also very fierce, its visible symptoms and its principle of transmission were already well known to Ming-dynasty physicians, who even created a vaccine tailored to its symptomatic characteristics.

Cholera ranks next, because its danger is high, its fatality rate is great, and because it is a newly introduced disease, people still cannot determine its pathogenic source. They have tried all kinds of treatments, completely without effect; the vast majority of treatment methods can only ease the suffering.

Cholera existed in ancient times — at the very least, the word "cholera" already appeared in the Han dynasty. But the cholera of that time and the cholera of today are not the same disease. Back then, cholera often broke out in armies: vomiting and diarrhea above and below, losing combat effectiveness.

The more virulent cholera of today, however, can make vast numbers of people shit themselves to death.

Against this disease people are utterly helpless. What they call "easing the suffering" means: originally, with this disease, you would have diarrhea for five days before dying; take some medicine, and you die in two days.

But cholera's characteristics are also very distinct — it usually does not cross great rivers. It is a very strong regional disease; once a person leaves a dangerous area, the problem is largely gone.

The most terrifying is the plague.

It is not as though this disease has never struck before. Long before Liu Chengzong joined the army, in the final years of the Wanli reign, Yuhe Fort was hit by a pestilence. It took many lives, and also made the newly born Mei Bazong a loyalist orphan.

But the plague came and went. People did not know why it came, did not know why it spread, and likewise did not know why it left — they knew nothing at all.

In this world, only Liu Chengzong alone knows: it is called the plague, and it spreads via rats, fleas, and the spittle of carriers of the virus.

For one man to carry a secret that only he in the entire world knows — that in itself means an immense responsibility.

"These next two days, don't leave. Stay right here in the yamen. I need to write a few letters, for when you return to East Pass." Liu Chengzong paced in the hall, then turned his head. "Send men into Yan'an. These letters must be delivered personally into the hands of the recipients."

Wu Panlong had already said that the road east was difficult. An epidemic had broken out in Shanxi — what epidemic, no one yet knew — and it was very likely to spread to northern Shaanxi. That meant northern Shaanxi would become an epidemic zone.

He realized that the letters Liu Chengzong wanted to send must be extremely important, requiring their own soldiers to enter the epidemic zone.

"I will select a few trusted men. May I ask how many letters the Grand Marshal wishes to send?"

Wu Panlong calculated in his mind: for this trip he would have to use men from his hometown of Zhenyuan to deliver the letters. That way he could ensure safe passage through Pingliang Prefecture; once past Qingyang Prefecture, they could enter Yan'an.

But considering that by the time the messengers reached Yan'an, the plague there would likely have already spread, then for every route there must be two men traveling together.

If one fell, there would still be another to deliver the letter.

"Two letters." Liu Chengzong paused after speaking, then shook his head. "Send two books — the Book of Famine Relief and Epidemic Control."

Wu Panlong blurted out, "That's our book!"

He had read the Book of Famine Relief and Epidemic Control compiled by Liu Chengzong. Although after printing, this book was only distributed to local physicians and academies, and only senior officers had a few copies, in reality, in the Marshal's Mansion army, practically every officer who could read had read it.

Apart from the military statutes and regulations, their Grand Marshal had only ever compiled this one proper book. As the saying goes, those below follow the example of those above — never mind that it was a medical text on preventing contagion; even if it were a book of opera, everyone in the Marshal's Mansion would be an amateur aficionado.

And in all honesty, Wu Panlong had always believed that this Book of Famine Relief and Epidemic Control was the greatest weapon of the Marshal's Mansion's eastern campaign, because compared to the imperial court's armies, plague and famine were far more terrifying foes.

The book had little to offer in the way of treating plague, but it broadly introduced drought-resistant and locust-resistant crop varieties for the north, explained the siting and construction of small-scale water conservancy works, and covered the preliminary understanding, isolation, and prevention of epidemics.

The single most important point was that in the book, Liu Chengzong described the thing that causes epidemics in people as a "virus" — a kind of living, venomous insect smaller than a mayfly, invisible to the naked eye.

Once this knowledge was popularized in the army, it meant that when they entered an epidemic zone, no matter what epidemic was breaking out locally, they could greatly reduce the plague's impact on the army, while at the same time stabilizing the panic among the common people with the greatest speed.

Wu Panlong had always believed that the dead were the greatest source of plague, but his personal experience beside Yang Yao in the He-Huang campaign against smallpox made him realize that the dead are not the greatest source of plague.

The living are.

Or rather, panicked survivors who are difficult to bring under control — they are the greatest source of plague transmission.

The dead, on the other hand, are very obedient. They lie there, motionless. No one should provoke them. They wait for the flesh and the venomous insects to perish together.

"It is our book. We and the imperial court are two tigers on one mountain." Liu Chengzong did not refute Wu Panlong's words; he only said, "But even if two tigers fight, the mountain is right here. If the mountain collapses, what is the point of winning the fight?"

"Plague or no plague, we can rampage across the realm!"

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Good evening!